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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
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Issue of 2014‒05‒24
eight papers chosen by Fulvio Castellacci Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) |
| By: | Andrew B. Bernard (Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, CEPR & NBER); Valerie Smeets (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University, Denmark); Frederic Warzynski (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the decline in manufacturing in Denmark from 1994 to 2007. As in almost every other high-income country, manufacturing employment and the number of manufacturing firms in Denmark have been shrinking as a share of the total and in absolute levels. Most of the decline of manufacturing is due to firm exit and reduced employment at surviving manufacturers. However, a portion of the recorded decline is due to firms switching industries, from manufacturing to service sectors. We focus on this last group of firms, asking what they looked like before switched and how they fared after the switch. Overall this is a group of small high productivity firms that grow more rapidly after they switch. By 2007, employment at these former manufacturers equals 10 percent of manufacturing employment, reducing the apparent decline in manufacturing employment by about one half. |
| Keywords: | deindustrialization, manufacturing firms, industry switching, employment, skill composition |
| JEL: | D22 L25 |
| Date: | 2014–05–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2014-14&r=tid |
| By: | Jean-Luc Gaffard (OFCE); Lionel Nesta (OFCE) |
| Abstract: | Real divergences in economic performances that emerge between countries belonging to the Eurozone make it necessary to define an economic policy oriented towards a re-industrialization of some regions in Europe. In a world characterized by irreversibility of investment and imperfection of market information, supply-side reforms should consist in establishing a framework aimed at supporting both competition and cooperation between the various players of innovation, and thus allowing firm strategies to be successful. This requires reconsidering both national and European policies that are growth-enhancing, that is, industrial policy, competition policy, labour policy, regional policy, and banking policy. However, any change in the industrial landscape in Europe will only be possible if a new macroeconomic policy prevents the inappropriate destruction of productive capacities. 1. A |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/2n0nklq0fu9ubbop85trtn08qh&r=tid |
| By: | Jackie Krafft (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR7321 - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (UNS)); Francesco Quatraro (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR7321 - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (UNS)); Pier-Paolo Saviotti (GAEL - Grenoble Applied Economic laboratory - Aucune) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we present a methodology to represent and measure knowledge which takes into account knowledge heterogeneity and its sectoral level theoretical and empirical implications in knowledge intensive environments. We draw on work on recombinant knowledge, extending the approach to include: the way the dynamics of technological knowledge creation evolves according to a life cycle; testing the existence of concepts such as technological paradigms; mapping the characteristics of the search process in the phases of exploration and exploitation during this technology life cycle; and detecting the differences in sectoral evolution that can be explained by the properties of the knowledge base. We use European Patent Office data (1981-2005) to propose some operational metrics for the knowledge base and its evolution in two knowledge intensive sectors: biotechnology and telecommunications. Our empirical results show that there are interesting and meaningful differences across sectors, which are linked to the different phases of the technology life cycles. |
| Keywords: | knowledge base, knowledge intensive sectors, variety, coherence, cognitive distance, technological classes, patents |
| Date: | 2013–11–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00991397&r=tid |
| By: | Scott French (School of Economics, Australian School of Business, the University of New South Wales) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a quantitative, multi-country model of endogenous growth, international trade, and international knowledge flows in order to understand how access to both foreign products and technologies, together, influences innovation incentives and the world distribution of income. An endogenous product cycle arises in equilibrium, in which innovative countries engage in both horizontal and vertical research, while others far from the technological frontier specialize in learning about and applying research previously conducted abroad. The effect of trade barriers on the level and dispersion of income across countries is found to be larger than would be predicted by a static trade model, and the effect of access to international knowledge flows is also quantitatively important and dependent on trade flows. For instance, halving the cost of learning reduces income dispersion by 23%, while doing so after eliminating asymmetric international trade barriers reduces income dispersion by only 10%. |
| Keywords: | Income differences, Trade, Endogenous growth, Product cycle, Innovation, Productivity, Technology diffusion |
| JEL: | F11 F12 F14 O19 O31 O33 O40 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:swe:wpaper:2014-26&r=tid |
| By: | Gabriele Pellegrino (Barcelona Institute of Economics - University of Barcelona, Barcelona); Mariacristina Piva (DISCE, Università Cattolica) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the determinants of the choice of different types of innovative input (R&D and technological acquisitions) and their relationship with different innovative outputs (product and process innovation), distinguishing between firms of different ages (mature vs young). In order to do so we apply a nonlinear structural model estimated on the third and fourth waves of the Italian Community Innovation Survey (CIS). We find that firm and market characteristics play a distinct role in boosting different types of innovation activities for firms of different ages. In particular, while methods of appropriability and international market exposure are relevant for both forms of innovative input, cooperation in innovation activities appears to be important for increasing the level of investment in R&D but not for technological acquisition. Moreover, young firms show a higher level of sensitivity than their mature counterparts to sources of information regarding innovation when we consider the magnitude of their innovative effort. On the contrary, factors such as methods of appropriability and support for innovation appear to be more important for enhancing the level of investment in both R&D and technological acquisitions for the mature firms only. Finally, the two innovative inputs appear to be equally important in determining both forms of innovative output for the two sub-samples of firms. |
| Keywords: | R&D; Technological acquisition; Innovative outputs; Young firms |
| JEL: | O31 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie2:dises1497&r=tid |
| By: | Colombo, Massimo G. (Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy); Mohammadi, Ali (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology); Lamastra, Cristina Rossi (Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy) |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurial ventures operating in high-tech industries are more and more adopting innovative business models, which are based on use of the market for ideas instead of the market for products or on the leveraging of communities of users and developers. A common characteristic of these innovative business models is their dependence on innovative technological knowledge and, consequently, on the ways in which intellectual property rights over this knowledge are designed (i.e., tight vs. loose appropriability regime). This chapter grounds on mainstream organizational design theories to speculate on how high-tech entrepreneurial ventures should organize internally to successfully implement these innovative business models. Specifically, it analyzes how firms’ structure, decision rights, and human resource management practices should be adapted to the need of generating, absorbing, and protecting innovative technological knowledge. Heeding a recent call in management literature, we will conduct our analysis considering organizational design variables both at the individual and firm level. |
| Keywords: | business model innovation; brganizational design; high-tech entrepreneurial ventures |
| JEL: | L17 L22 L26 O31 |
| Date: | 2014–05–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0366&r=tid |
| By: | Christos Bilanakos; Colin P. Green; John S. Heywood; Nikolaos Theodoropoulos |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between firm-specific training and product market competition. A canonical Cournot competition model shows that the profitability of training investments increases as the number of competitors decreases. Empirical evidence from British establishments in 1998, 2004 and 2011 confirms that a critical form of specific training, cross-training, is far more extensive in less competitive product markets. This persists within all three separate cross-sections and in two separate panel estimates and suggests that a dominant product market position increases the incentives to invest in specific human capital. |
| Keywords: | Specific training, Cross-training, Product market competition, Panel data |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucy:cypeua:06-2014&r=tid |
| By: | Vasco Carvalho; Nico Voigtländer |
| Abstract: | What determines which inputs are initially considered and eventually adopted in the production of new or improved goods? Why are some inputs much more prominent than others? We model the evolution of input linkages as a process where new producers first search for potentially useful inputs and then decide which ones to adopt. A new product initially draws a set of ‘essential suppliers’. The search stage is then confined to the network neighborhood of the latter, i.e., to the inputs used by the essential suppliers. The adoption decision is driven by a tradeoff between the benefits accruing from input variety and the costs of input adoption. This has important implications for the number of forward linkages that a product (input variety) develops over time. Input diffusion is fostered by network centrality – an input that is initially represented in many network neighborhoods is subsequently more likely to be adopted. This mechanism also delivers a power law distribution of forward linkages. Our predictions continue to hold when varieties are aggregated into sectors. We can thus test them, using detailed sectoral US input-output tables. We show that initial network proximity of a sector in 1967 significantly increases the likelihood of adoption throughout the subsequent four decades. The same is true for rapid productivity growth in an input-producing sector. Our empirical results highlight two conditions for new products to become central nodes: initial network proximity to prospective adopters, and technological progress that reduces their relative price. Semiconductors met both conditions. |
| Keywords: | input adoption, directed network search, dynamics of input-output networks |
| JEL: | O33 C67 D57 L23 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:759&r=tid |